Full Circle
A strangled cry broke the silence of the delivery room as the first of two infants was brought screaming into the world with all the subtlety of an NYPD squad car rolling in Code 3.
The first to appear was a feisty redheaded little girl with piercing, luminescent green eyes and a very healthy set of lungs. The second was a tiny boy with a full head of dark brown hair and a pair of adorable baby blue eyes.
Kate had gone into labor nearly twelve hours ago, her water having broken in the break room of the Twelfth Precinct. She was exhausted, lying spent in her hospital bed with their twin babies in her arms, beaming up at her husband. She couod hardly believe that she was finally greeting the babies she had been carrying for these past nine months.
For his part, Castle, with tears in his eyes, stared down at his wife, his partner and his one and only true love. He knew she had to be exhausted. She pale and wan from her exertions, but sitting up in her hospital bed with their babies in her arms she had never looked more radiant or more beautiful than in this moment.
He could not help but compare this moment to the day that Alexis was born. Meredith would not so much as allow him in the delivery room. She had handed off their child to him like she'd been glad to be rid of her from that day forward. She'd hired a personal trainer and was off to shed the baby weight the very next day. From that moment forward, spending as little time with their daughter as she possibly could. Though he would not have traded a single moment with Alexis for anything in the world, his greatest regret had been that he could not get Meredith to see what she had seemingly cast aside to pursue her acting career. That he could never seem to get Meredith to understand the secret pain that she had caused Alexis haunted him to this day.
His mind flashed again to another moment nearly two years ago, the two of them standing together in a dumpster after a nearly sleepless night with baby "Cosmo". Where Kate had promised him that this time would be different, he would not be left to do it alone. She promised she would be with him every step of the way. The memory of that moment filled him with even more warmth and love for Kate than he thought possible. She would be his partner even in this.
"No, Rick," Kate whispered, a hint of mischief in her exhausted green eyes.
"What?" he stuttered, having lost track of how long he had been staring.
"No, you will not be naming our son Cosmo. Not. Gonna. Happen."
Rick blushed, his fingers absently shifting to his right earlobe. They had bantered for weeks over this very subject while they were discussing baby names after the first ultrasound. He ended every discussion on this with "We'll see," but she had been and still was, adamant on the matter. He was okay with it. He had been from the start. He just loved messing with her. He had actually let it go the first time she said no, not that he would ever admit to he that he had let her win.
Both mother and babies were fine and healthy, which had Rick in a state of grace. He would surrender anything, give her anything. His own life, if necessary. Except for Alexis, his whole world was in that hospital bed right now.
Nothing else mattered.
The following day. When everyone they cared about was gathered in the private hospital room, Richard and Katherine introduced them to Johanna Alexis and Jackson Royce Castle, to the chorus of many oohs and aahs. The two new arrivals to the 12th Precinct family were passed around, first to their overwhelmed older sister, then their polar opposite grandparents and finally to their very ecclectic mix of godparents.
All was now right with the Universe.